BC-PA--Exchange, Advisory, PA

Here are the stories for this week’s Pennsylvania Member Exchange package. If you have any questions, contact the Philadelphia bureau at 215-561-1133.

For use anytime:

EXCHANGE-EDITORIAL RDP

Editorials from around Pennsylvania.

For Saturday, May 11, 2019:

EXCHANGE-HORSE RACING DEATHS

HARRISBURG _ Thoroughbreds provide many reasons to marvel. The fastest can top 40 mph. Their speed-producing features — extraordinary concentration of muscle, body and lungs forming a natural bellows, oversized hearts circulating ten gallons of blood — inspire comparison to locomotives. Yet the 1,100-pound animals, taking 20-foot-plus strides, gallop on ankles which have been likened to glass. Suddenly, the entire sport of thoroughbred racing stands on fragile legs. The crisis reared up at famed Santa Anita Park in California, where 23 horses broke down and had to be killed during a recent 14-week period. It put a national spotlight on a hard reality the public normally doesn’t think about: horses commonly break down during racing or training and are put to death. The goal is to end the suffering, but a central Pennsylvania horse vet argues it happens too often. In Pennsylvania, 87 horses died at the state’s three thoroughbred racing venues last year, a rate of about 1.5 a week. David Wenner, PennLive.com

EXCHANGE-UNIVERSITY’S DISABLED STUDENTS PROGRAM

PITTSBURGH _ Veronica Siaba is leaving college because the program she traveled hundreds of miles for is gone. It’s not her academic major. If it were, the Edinboro University junior with cerebral palsy would know she could get the courses needed to finish through a practice that safeguards progress toward degree, even when that degree program dies. But the personal care attendants on campus who offered basic life needs — feeding, showering and toileting — to students with severe physical disabilities were not part of an academic program, or even a required service, her school said. Rather, they were a “special” service that complements other support, one the school had no more obligation to maintain than, say, a collegiate sport. So in September, when Edinboro announced it would end a decades-old program that is unique nationally, Siaba and others were given the academic year to make a choice: Gamble that off-campus agencies could provide the same access to 24/7 care that drew them to Edinboro, or leave the university. Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

EXCHANGE- NURSE PRACTITIONERS-RURAL CARE

ALLENTOWN _ Nurse practitioners are playing an increasingly important role in health care as the number of primary care doctors, especially in rural areas, has thinned out. “The future supply of primary care physicians looks bleak, whereas the future supply of nurse practitioners is increasingly rosy,” Whalen said. Despite the need, Pennsylvania nurse practitioners say they’re held back from practicing in desperately underserved areas because they’re required to find a partnering doctor to work with. Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering legislation that would eliminate that requirement. But the proposal has failed to pass twice in recent years because of strong opposition from doctors’ associations, which see the rule as critical to ensuring the best care for patients, especially those with complicated health problems. Binghui Huang, The (Allentown) Morning Call.

EXCHANGE-FOUNDING BIBLE

PITTSBUURGH _ The return of a rare Bible to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is more than a homecoming — it is a reminder that the Geneva Bible has been part of this country’s religious heritage since the beginning. “It is the quintessential American Bible, even though it was produced by and for Englishmen,” said Ryan McDermott, associate professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. The 1615 “Breeches Bible” that was returned to Pittsburgh in April — ending a theft case dating to the 1990s — was an edition of the Geneva Bible that was first published in 1560, McDermott said. Tolle Lege Press, of Dallas, Ga., released a modern version of the 1599 Geneva Bible in 2006. Stephen Huba, Tribune-Review.

HOMELESS IN THE SUBURBS

WILLOW GROVE _ The building under construction is hard to miss from Wawa in Upper Moreland, where Richard Valier stood smoking a Marlboro and gesturing toward the 250 condominiums slated to rise near the intersection of York and Easton roads. At 70 years old, Valier’s needs are much more imminent. That day, he was looking for water at Burger King, so he could take his Ginseng and vitamins. Then, he was looking for a place to shave, and was headed to a bathroom at Walmart to do just that. Most necessities were packed in a trash bag, tucked in the woods not far from a commercial highway in Warminster. On top of the bag is a blow dryer, which he plugs into an outside outlet to keep warm on cold nights. He’s always looking for money, and he’ll ask for it throughout the day, which is planned according to where he can sleep, sip free coffee, and rest his head before he’s nudged to move along to the next stop. Homelessness, advocates say, is a complex issue to address — and even more so in suburban counties like Bucks, advocates say. Marion Callahan, Bucks County Courier Times.